A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To help control Medicaid spending on drugs, states receive rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers through the Medicaid drug rebate program. Rebates are based on two prices--best price and average manufacturer price (AMP)--reported by manufacturers. Both reflect manufacturers' prices to various entities, accounting for certain financial concessions like discounts. Concerns have been raised about rising Medicaid drug spending. GAO studied (1) federal oversight of manufacturer-reported best prices and AMPs and the methods used to determine them, (2) how manufacturers' determinations of those prices could have affected rebates, and (3) how the rebate program reflects financial concessions in the private market."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the 1960s and 1970s, American Indian children were about six times more likely to be placed in foster care than other children and many were placed in non-American Indian homes or institutions. In 1978, the Congress enacted the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to protect American Indian families and to give tribes a role in making child welfare decisions for children subject to ICWA. ICWA requires that (1) tribes be notified and given an opportunity to intervene when the state places a child subject to ICWA in foster care or seeks to terminate parental rights on behalf of such a child and (2) children be placed if possible with relatives or tribal families. This report describes (1) the factors that influence placement decisions for children subject to ICWA; (2) the extent to which, if any, placements for children subject to ICWA have been delayed; and (3) federal oversight of states' implementation of ICWA."

This report provides a summary of the contents of the Senate's Calendar of Business, which lists bills, resolutions, and other items of legislative business that are eligible for floor consideration.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The war on terrorism has focused attention on the important role U.S. public diplomacy plays in improving the nation's image. The United States has undertaken efforts to "win hearts and minds" by better engaging, informing, and influencing foreign audiences; however, recent polling data show that anti-Americanism is spreading and deepening around the world. GAO was asked to examine (1) to what extent U.S. public diplomacy efforts have been coordinated and (2) whether the private sector has been significantly engaged in such efforts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For the past 8 years, since the first audit of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS), certain material weaknesses in internal control and in selected accounting and financial reporting practices have resulted in conditions that prevented GAO from expressing an opinion on the CFS. Specifically, GAO has reported that the U.S. government did not have adequate systems, controls, and procedures to properly prepare the CFS. In December 2004, GAO reported on weaknesses identified during its fiscal year 2004 audit of the CFS, including weaknesses relating to the Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) preparation of the CFS. The purpose of this report is to (1) discuss the details of the weaknesses relating to Treasury's preparation of the CFS, (2) recommend improvements to address those weaknesses, and (3) provide the status of corrective actions to address the 142 open recommendations GAO previously reported."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents our opinion on the financial statements of the Congressional Award Foundation for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2004, and 2003. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Congressional Award Foundation. This report also presents (1) our opinion on the effectiveness of the Foundation's related internal control as of September 30, 2004, and (2) our conclusion on the Foundation's compliance in fiscal year 2004 with selected provisions of laws and regulations we tested. We conducted our audit pursuant to section 107 of the Congressional Award Act, as amended (2 U.S.C. 807), and in accordance with U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Individuals or organizations seeking to register the names of their Web sites may provide inaccurate contact information to registrars in order to hide their identities or to prevent members of the public from contacting them. Contact information is made publicly available on the Internet through a service known as Whois. Data accuracy in the Whois service can help law enforcement officials to investigate intellectual property misuse and online fraud, or identify the source of spam e-mail, and can help Internet operators to resolve technical network issues. GAO was asked, among other things, to (1) determine the prevalence of patently false or incomplete contact data in the Whois service for the .com, .org, and .net domains; (2) determine the extent to which patently false data are corrected within 1 month of being reported to ICANN; and (3) describe steps the Department of Commerce (Commerce) and ICANN have taken to ensure the accuracy of contact data in the Whois database."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. textile and apparel imports from China have more than doubled in value since China became a World Trade Organization (WTO) member. When joining the WTO, China agreed to a special textile safeguard mechanism applicable only to that country. In this report, GAO (1) describes the mechanism, (2) describes requests for safeguard action filed by U.S. producers and the results of these requests, and (3) evaluates U.S. agency procedures for transparency and accessibility."

A chapter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Amtrak has struggled since its inception to earn sufficient revenues and operate efficiently. In June 2002, Amtrak's new president began major efforts to improve efficiency. However, the financial condition of the company remains precarious, requiring a federal subsidy of more than $1 billion annually. Capital backlogs are now about $6 billion, with over 60 percent being attributable to its mainstay Northeast Corridor service. GAO reviewed Amtrak's (1) strategic planning, (2) financial reporting and financial management practices, (3) cost containment strategies, (4) acquisition management, and (5) accountability and oversight."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent military operations have required that the Army rely extensively on Army National Guard forces, which currently comprise over 30 percent of the ground forces in Iraq. Heavy deployments of Army National Guard forces and their equipment, much of which has been left overseas for follow-on forces, have raised questions about whether the Army National Guard has the types and quantities of equipment it will need to continue supporting ongoing operations and future missions. GAO was asked to assess the extent to which (1) the Army National Guard has the equipment needed to support ongoing operations and (2) the Army can account for Army National Guard equipment left overseas. GAO also assessed the Army's plans, cost estimates, and funding strategy for equipping Guard units under its modular and rotational force initiatives."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) receives millions of employer-submitted earnings reports (Form W-2s) that it is unable to place in an individual Social Security record. If the Social Security number (SSN) and name on a W-2 do not match SSA's records, the W-2 is retained in the Earnings Suspense File (ESF). SSA's ability to match earnings reports is essential to calculating Social Security benefits. Because of concerns about the size of the ESF, GAO was asked to determine (1) how SSA processes workers' earnings reports, (2) the types of errors in ESF reports and the characteristics of employers whose reports are in the ESF, (3) how often earnings from repeatedly used SSNs have been reinstated and who receives the earnings from theses reports, and (4) what key factors contribute to ESF postings."

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The FY05 Waste Package Environment testing program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory focused on determining the temperature, relative humidity, and solution compositions of brines formed due to the deliquescence of NaCl-KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3} and NaCl-KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3}-Ca(NO{sub 3}){sub 2} salt mixtures. Understanding the physical and chemical behavior of these brines is important because they define conditions under which brines may react with waste canister surfaces. Boiling point experiments show that NaCl-KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3} and NaCl-KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3}-Ca(NO{sub 3}){sub 2} salt mixtures form brines that transform to hydrous melts that do not truly 'dry out' until temperatures exceed 300 and 400 C, respectively. Thus a conducting solution is present for these salt assemblages over the thermal history of the repository. The corresponding brines form at lower relative humidity at higher temperatures. The NaCl-KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3} salt mixture has a mutual deliquescence relative humidity (MDRH) of 25.9% at 120 C and 10.8% at 180 C. Similarly, the KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3} salt mixture has MDRH of 26.4% at 120 C and 20.0% at 150 C. The KNO{sub 3}-NaNO{sub 3} salt mixture salts also absorb some water (but do not appear to deliquesce) at 180 C and thus may also contribute to the transfer …

The primary purpose of the project was to identify materials and methods that will make the envelope of a house flood damage resistant. Flood damage resistant materials and systems are intended to be used to repair houses subsequent to flooding. This project was also intended to develop methods of restoring the envelopes of houses that have been flooded but are repairable and may be subject to future flooding. Then if the house floods again, damage will not be as extensive as in previous flood events and restoration costs and efforts will be minimized. The purpose of the first pair of field tests was to establish a baseline for typical current residential construction practice. The first test modules used materials and systems that were commonly found in residential envelopes throughout the U.S. The purpose of the second pair of field tests was to begin evaluating potential residential envelope materials and systems that were projected to be more flood-damage resistant and restorable than the conventional materials and systems tested in the first pair of tests. The purpose of testing the third slab-on-grade module was to attempt to dry flood proof the module (no floodwater within the structure). If the module could be …

This report reviews progress made on NA22 project LL251DP to develop a novel technique, Nuclear Acoustic Resonance (NAR), for remote, non-destructive, nonradiation-based detection of materials of interest to Nonproliferation Programs, including {sup 235}U and {sup 239}Pu. We have met all milestones and deliverables for FY05, as shown in Table 1. In short, we have developed a magnetic shield chamber and magnetic field, develop a digital lock-in amplifier computer to integrate both the ultrasound radiation with the detector, developed strain measurements, and begin to perform initial measurements to obtain a NAR signal from aluminum at room temperature and near the earth's magnetic field. The results obtained in FY05 further support the feasibility of successful demonstration of an NAR experiment for remote, non-destructive, non-radiation-based detection of materials of interest to Nonproliferation Programs.

The goal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Nuclear and Radiological Forensics and Attribution Program is to develop the technical capability for the nation to rapidly, accurately, and credibly attribute the origins and pathways of interdicted or collected materials, intact nuclear devices, and radiological dispersal devices. A robust attribution capability contributes to threat assessment, prevention, and deterrence of nuclear terrorism; it also supports the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its investigative mission to prevent and respond to nuclear terrorism. Development of the capability involves two major elements: (1) the ability to collect evidence and make forensic measurements, and (2) the ability to interpret the forensic data. The Program leverages the existing capability throughout the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory complex in a way that meets the requirements of the FBI and other government users. At the same time the capability is being developed, the Program also conducts investigations for a variety of sponsors using the current capability. The combination of operations and R&D in one program helps to ensure a strong linkage between the needs of the user community and the scientific development.

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This report summarizes the extent of the disaster and relief effort.

This report includes a detailed recitation of factual information and of the Guideline and statutory provisions which the officer believes relevant and applicable.

This report discusses the radio frequency spectrum that is used for all forms of wireless communications, including cellular telephony, paging, personal communications service, radio and television broadcast, telephone radio relay, aeronautical and maritime radio navigation, and satellite command and control.

A case is made for the importance of high quality semantic and coreference annotation. The challenges of providing such annotation are described. Asperger's Syndrome is introduced, and the connections are drawn between the needs of text annotation and the abilities of persons with Asperger's Syndrome to meet those needs. Finally, a pilot program is recommended wherein semantic annotation is performed by people with Asperger's Syndrome. The primary points embodied in this paper are as follows: (1) Document annotation is essential to the Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); (2) LLNL does not currently have a system in place to meet its need for text annotation; (3) Text annotation is challenging for a variety of reasons, many related to its very rote nature; (4) Persons with Asperger's Syndrome are particularly skilled at rote verbal tasks, and behavioral experts agree that they would excel at text annotation; and (6) A pilot study is recommend in which two to three people with Asperger's Syndrome annotate documents and then the quality and throughput of their work is evaluated relative to that of their neuro-typical peers.

This report discuses the HIPAA privacy rule, which gives patients the right of access to their medical information and prohibits health plans and health care providers from using or disclosing individually identifiable health information without a patient’s written authorization except as expressly permitted or required by the rule.

This report analyzes the profit performance of firms in the oil industry, evaluates factors that might have affected profitability in the oil industry, and examines the use of profits by the industry and the implications for the development of the oil market.